GFCI outlet keeps trripping

[kriv4o]

At the beginning of march my wife and I purchased our first home and when the excitement settled the time for a fish room planning emerged. Long story short I sectioned a 12'x10' part of the two car garage to serve as a dedicated fish room. On the two existing walls there were 4 electrical outlets running on the same circuit. I replaced the first inline with a GFCI one so the rest of the receptacles along the circuit get protection.
Recently the GFCI started tripping without any obvious reason. Now I am still in the process of moving in and finishing other projects around the house. The only things plugged in the fish room and rest of the garage(same circuit) haven't changed since I put the GFCI outlet and plugged everything in about 3 months ago. I tried to unplug equipment one by one to find if anything changes but no luck.
Basically this is where I stand as of now. I need to figure/troubleshoot this before I even continue the building of my system.
The only thing that kinda makes sense is the humidity in the room trips the GFCI and I plan on putting a GFCI breaker in the panel and replace the outlet with a regular on.
Until I get to do that any and all ideas/suggestions are welcome. I am stuck at work and I know that the power is out and there is no life support to the little life stock I have left after the move.

 

[cherubfish pair]

It could be faulty. Plug a grounding probe in it to check for stray voltage.

 

[thegrun]

I have had them go bad in the past. IMHO the easiest thing to do would be to replace the old recepticle. If the new one trips, you likely have a wiring issue.

 

[wolfblue]

replace the old recepticle. If the new one trips, you likely have a wiring issue.

+1

 

[kriv4o]

I have to go to home depot tomorrow any way. Plus i am off so i will just replace the breaker to play it safe.

 

[stancfii]

What kind of lighting? The electronic ballast on my halide caused my breaker to trip when plugged into a surge protector. Now it plugs directly into the wall.

 

[kriv4o]

LEDs and T5s

 

[OrionN]

One circuit is not enough. You may want to put in another one.
You want each outlet with its own GFCI. One tripped and the rest stay on, even in the same circuit so that you don't end up with a dead tank from some trivial problem. You want essential equipment on different circuit.
Put receptacles high rather than low. I have 3 dedicated circuits to my fish room. All individual GFCI. I have blocks of these outlet on all the walls. 6 R front 6 L front. Same on back wall and 6 on R and 6 on L wall. 1/2 of the outlet on the front and back walls have switch on them so I can shut them off without have to unplug the equipments. I did all the wiring myself because the electrician can really go to town on charges if the do everything I want them to do. He know more about electricity, but I know enough to do it safely, and I know a whole lot more about what my reef needed than he does.
Basically if anything that can go wrong will go wrong, you got to prepare fort he worst. Little thing like switched outlet is nice but not essential. My return pump does not go on a GFCI outlet. It cannot fail or my tank is dead.

 

[kriv4o]

Great info. Thank you for the ideas. i was planning on running 2 more breakers to the fish room as the panel is about 15 feet away and I can run most of the wiring trough the attic. I was just trying to figure how to keep the little that I have running without the GFCI tripping all the time. Especially since it bugs the hell out of me since it worked fine since April and I haven't added anything since day one.
So you are saying you have GFCI on all outlets as in GFCI with the reset and test button everywhere?

 

[OrionN]

...
So you are saying you have GFCI on all outlets as in GFCI with the reset and test button everywhere?

Yes. Each of my outlet in there is a GFCI (except one that I plug the return pump in. All connected in parallel where when one is tripped, only that outlet is out (well that pair) The rest of the circuit continue to function. It is really easy to tell which one of your equipment trip your outlet when only one hook up to that outlet.

 

[kriv4o]

Thank you

 

[rcpd34]

I have had them go bad in the past. IMHO the easiest thing to do would be to replace the old recepticle. If the new one trips, you likely have a wiring issue.

If swapping it out doesn't work check the circuit. In my old house, I had an outlet on the GFCI circuit in a different room that I had no idea was being controlled by the GFCI.

 

[Owensue]

Be sure to wire the circuit differently with each outlet as a GFCI. Do not feed the next outlet off the load of the first, literally parallel the feed to the outlets like the attached image.

 

[alton]

FYI regular GFCI's trip at 4 to 6 milli-amp, Hospital grade trip at 5ma and are much more accurate like a breaker which trips at 5ma

 

[intyme]

Could be your ground wire

 

[Dmorty217]

Code is a gfci breaker and outlets

 

[kriv4o]

That pic helps a ton. So basically don't use the load terminals at all just wire them all to the line terminal. By doing this only the one that has the faulty equipment plugged in it would trip and everything else should keep running? Just making sure I understood correct.

And I am on my way to home depot for a GFCI breaker and some more GFCI outlers

 

[OrionN]

kriv4o,
You need profesional help. From your comment above you have no idea at all what the diagram show.
there is so manything can go wrong with electricity and it is dangerous unless YOU KNOW what you are doing.

Even if you don't tight the screw tight enough, you can cause a fire because of a semi-loose connection. Please know your limitation and be safe.

 

[kriv4o]

So are you saying I understood the diagram wrong or I just worded incorrect. Because it seems pretty straight forward to me.
I am pretty sure swapping 4 outlets is within my "limitations".

 

[Owensue]

Do not use a GFCI breaker AND outlets. Just like you wouldn't put a GFCI downstream from another (on the load). It will cause tripping OR possible non trippings.

If your using multiple gfci's then yes, your initial interpretation of the diagram is correct, do not feed outlet 2+ from the load of outlet 1, parallel the outlets leaving the load unused.